NiGHTS series
NiGHTS is a video games franchise developed by SEGA starring the titular character, NiGHTS, a genderless nightmaren who was created to do evil but decided to go against it, now he must fight the world of the nightmarens and protect the world of dreams aswell as the human's dreams, the series started in 1996 with the release of NiGHTS into dreams for the SEGA Saturn. Even though the series only has two games and a bonus edition, NiGHTS has managed to become one of SEGA's most popular series, the serie was created by Yuji Naka, who was also the creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, in fact, one of NiGHTS most notable aspects, is the fact it has been referred in a lot Sonic games, such as Sonic Adventure, Sonic Riders and Sonic Lost World. NiGHTS had a cancelled Dreamcast game called Air NiGHTS, a small comic series released in 1998 and a storybook released only in Japan in 1996. Overview History When humans go to sleep, they are transported to a dimension called the Night Dimension, a magical dimension divided into two types of locations: the world of dreams, known as Nightopia and the world of the nightmarens, know as Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked is the God of Nightmare and creator of all the nightmarens, he created them with the intention to destroy Nightopia and to steal ideyas from humans (who the Night Dimension residents call "Visitors" or "Dreamers") while they are sleeping, ideyas are colored, crystalline orbs which are human's dream energy and every Visitor possesses five of them, in the NiGHTS' manual, it's stated that once Wizeman steal enough dream energy from humans, he will be able to invade the real world, out of the five ideyas, the red ideya of courage is the most powerful and the nightmarens cannot steal it due to it's power, Wizeman created two nightmarens who are his most powerful creations, NiGHTS and Reala with the intention to steal the red ideyas, but for Wizeman's surprise, while Reala stayed very loyal to him, NiGHTS decided to rebel agaist Wizeman, since then, NiGHTS has been fighting Wizeman and his minions to protect the world of dreams and humans, in games, NiGHTS is assisted by two human children who are having a hard time in their lifes, during their adventures, NiGHTS helps the kids by encouraging them to face their problems, to defeat the nightmarens, NiGHTS has the power fuse with humans so he can use their red ideya to become more powerful, in the games, this type of fusion is called "dualize". Ideyas Ideyas are colored, crystalline orbs representing dream energy. The Nightmarens steal this energy from Visitors to further their goal of destroying Nightopia and to invading the real world. Each time an Ideya is stolen, Nightopia disappears bit by bit. Ideya represents the Visitor's consciousness in the Night Dimension. Every dreamer possesses five of them, although they are often stolen by Nightmarens on the way to the Night Dimension. The name is a play on the word idea. The ideas are the white ideya of purity, the yellow ideya of hope, the green ideya of growth, the blue ideya of inteligence and the most powerful one, the red ideya of courage. The ideya of the courage cannot be stolen by the nightmarens due to it's power, because of this, NiGHTS and Reala were created with the intention to steal it, in the Archie Comics, it's revealed that NiGHTS' ruby on his chest is actually a shard of the red ideya which latched on to his chest. Nightmare level system The nightmarens follow a system where they are ranked as first, second or third level nightmarens, first level nightmarens are the highest ranking nightmarens and there are only two, NiGHTS and Reala, they were created specifically to steal the red ideya, the second level nightmarens are all of the game's bosses with the exception of Reala and Wizeman, they are powerful monsters who are stronger than most of the nightmarens in the Nightmare kingdom, but they are not stronger than NiGHTS and Reala, they are also more resistent and they have the power to create their own battefield to fight NiGHTS and third level nightmarens are the enemies who can be found in the levels, they are Wizeman's weakest creations who can be easily defeated by NiGHTS and even by visitors alone. Visitors .]] The "Visitors" (or "Dreamers") are the humans protagonists from the games they are addressed by that name by the Night Dimension residents, so far, the NiGHTS series presented four visitors (five with the Archie Comics), Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair in NiGHTS into dreams and William "Will" Taylor and Helen Cartwright in NiGHTS Journey of dreams, all four of them are having a hard time in their lifes, Claris is feeling insecure about the dreams she wants to follow, Elliot is feeling embarassed after being bullied by older kids, Helen is feeling guilty about her behavior towards her mother and William is feeling lonely after his father leaving him due his work, one night during their sleep, they are having nightmarens about their problems when suddently, monsters appear and start to chase them, they run from the monsters until they see a light which sends them to the Night dimension, where they meet NiGHTS and their journey begins, before every level, NiGHTS gets captured by Wizeman and/or Reala and he is imprisioned in a cage, however the Visitor's ideya is capable of releasing him from the cage for a limited time so NiGHTS can save a Nightopia location one by one, in the Archie comics, Elliot's bully and rival, Roger Wilkeah, is also a visitor, Roger is sent to the nightmare world and he joins forces with Reala to defeat NiGHTS. Nightopians Nightopians are little fairy-like creatures and as their names suggest, they are residents of Nightopia, according to the now, unavalible NiGHTS into dreams official website, they don't have any goal other than live their lifes and have fun in visitor's dream worlds, they can be found in every level from both games but Twin Seeds and Bellbridge, in 1998, the Nightopians were the inspiration for the creation of the Chaos from the Sonic series. Nightopians were Sonic Team's first Announced "Artificial-life" (A-Life), in NiGHTS into Dreams, the game will keep track of the moods of the Nightopians (harming them will displease them, for example), and the game features music engine that changed the background music (BGM) depending on the mood of the Nightopians in that specific level changing tempo, pitch, and melody. When two Nightopians touch, there is a chance that an egg will appear. By paralooping a Nightopian, the player will kill it, and lower the mood of every other Nightopian in the level, and drill dashing near one will cause it to be afraid of the player, and will lower that specific Nightopian's mood. Nightopians will either follow the player, run away from them, or be completely indifferent to their presence, based on their mood. If one is skilled enough, and has the patience, they can lure any two Nightopians close enough, and breed them, another thing that can happen during gameplay is that the nightmaren enemies from the levels may eat the Nightopians at any time. After a few playthroughs of the same level, Nightopians will disappear, with the oldest ones being the first to go, as to make it easier for the hardware to load the level and keep a decent framerate. In NiGHTS journey of dreams, the Nightopians act the same way they did in the previous game and just like in the first game, they may be eaten by the Nightmarens, this time however, their mood won't change the level's music, there's also a feature called My Dream also known as "Nightopian Garden", a place where the player can take care of Nightopians in a similar way to the Chao Garden from the Sonic series, when the player paraloops a Nightopian in this game, they won't kill it, but rather transport the Nightopians to My Dream, the player can also transport and take care of Nightmarens and feed them with Nightopians. The games also feature special types of Nightopians called Mepians and a very rare Nightopian called Super/King Pian, these Nightopians will only appear in the levels or in the Nightopian Garden if the player does specific things in the levels. Gender in the World of Dreams "Men or women, we all have dreams, so I thought that the residents in the dream world shouldn’t have a gender, rather, the form of the characters should be determined by the person who is dreaming." ―Yuji Naka about the characters gender. The characters gender (specially NiGHTS' gender) is a very infamous detail which has caused a lot of debates among the community, many people question if NiGHTS is actually a boy or a girl while others try to prove NiGHTS actually belongs to a specific gender, however, Yuji Naka himself already confirmed in an interview that every resident from the world of dreams is genderless, including NiGHTS, Reala, Nightopians, Owl and others, http://www.nightsintodreams.com/?p=1343 even characters like Puffy, Bomamba and Queen Bella, who have a very feminine design and go by female pronouns, are actually genderless, Wizeman, who is confirmed to be male, is the only exception, he is the only resident from the world of dreams to have a gender likely because it's rumored he was actually a human before getting trapped in the world of dreams and becoming the God of all the nightmarens. Sonic Team wanted NiGHTS to appeal to a wide audience and be relatable to everybody regardless of gender, therefore it was made clear that the character has no gender of their own, so it's up to the player to decide however they want to see NiGHTS. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2007/12/interview_takashi_iizuka_talks_nights there's also a popular belief among the community where they believe NiGHTS' gender will change depending on the visitor he dualizes with, if NiGHTS dualizes with a male visitor, NiGHTS will become a boy, if NiGHTS dualizes with a female visitor, NiGHTS will become a girl and when he is not fused, he will become genderless. Although NiGHTS is genderless, he is referred as a "he" in all types of media. Carl Jung theory The works and theories of psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud heavily influenced in the game, the development team researched dream sequences and REM sleep, including the works of the psychoanalysts Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Holtz. Iizuka analysed Jung's theories of dream archetypes and spent a considerable amount of time studying dreams and theories associated with them. Naka said that the main protagonist, NiGHTS, is reflective of Jung's analytical "shadow" theory, whereas the two central characters, Claris and Elliot, were inspired by Jung's animus and anima, a deleted character called Selph would be inspired by the Self archetype. Gameplay styles In NiGHTS into dreams, before the levels, Wizeman imprisons NiGHTS in a magic blue cage called Ideya Palace, the player first controls either Elliot or Claris who are attacked by nightmarens that steal all of their ideyas but the red one and places them inside a blue Jellyfish-like capsule called Ideya Capture, the kids must dualize with NiGHTS and recover the four stolen ideyas in a limited time, each level has four laps, each lap has an ideya to recover, NiGHTS must collect 20 blue chips around the lap under 120 seconds and then go inside the Ideya Capture, the Ideya capture will break and NiGHTS will get the ideya back, after doing this, the player must bring the ideya to the ideya palace, but if they want to, they can spend the rest of the remaining time to get a high score, once all four ideyas are recovered, Wizeman will send a boss to fight NiGHTS, if the player defeats the boss quickly, they will be able to double their score. In NiGHTS Journey of dreams, the game's goal is different, once again, before every level, Reala will imprision NiGHTS in a golden aquarium-like cage and then leave, to open the cages, it's necessary to collect the keys which Reala will leave with three Goodles, grinning imp-like Nightmarens that ride colorful peacock-like bird nightmares, each Goodle will keep a capsule key, once again, the player must make one of the kids (William or Helen) dualize with NiGHTS to release him, then, they will have a limited time to chase each Goodles in a lap and bring the key to the capsule back so it can be destroyed, unlike in the first game, once the player completes the lap's goal, which in this case, is to catch the Goodle, they won't be able to spent the remaining time they have to make their score higher, once they bring the key back, the capsule will break and NiGHTS will go to the next lap, once all three laps are completed, Wizeman will send a boss to fight NiGHTS, if the player defeats the boss quickly, they will be able to double their score. Common features Besides it's gameplay about flying, the NiGHTS series is known for it's Arcade game like gameplay, the player control NiGHTS freely though the sky and with the goal to make high score, NiGHTS can passes though rings, collect blue chips and destroy third level nightmarens if the player collects a lot of blue chips and/or pass though a lot of rings fast enough, they will make links, which will make their score higher, at the end of the levels, NiGHTS must face a second level nightmaren, if he defeats them fast enough, the player might double their scores. Characters * NiGHTS: the main protagonist from the games, NiGHTS was created to be Wizeman's strongest Nightmarens, but he rebelled against his own creator because he didn't want to do evil, NiGHTS protects the world of dreams from the nightmarens with the help of kids who possese the powerful dream energy known as the ideya of courage, one of NiGHTS most famous traits is the fact that he is a genderless being (although he is refered as a "he" in every game). * Reala: the serie's secondary antagonist, both him and NiGHTS were created to be Wizeman's strongest Nightmarens, unlike NiGHTS, who decided to rebel, Reala is completely loyal to his creator and he does everything Wizeman wants, in the first game he simply makes an appearance as the boss from Stick Canyon, in the second game, he has a bigger role as the game's secondary antagonist, he plays with the Visitors minds and constantly imprision NiGHTS. * Wizeman: the series main antagonist, he is the god and creator of all the nightmarens including NiGHTS and Reala, his goal is to destroy the world of dreams and to steal enough human dream energy to take over the world, while Wizeman's past is never mentioned in the games, it's been said that he was a human without ideyas, it's unknown how he got trapped in the Night Dimension though. * Visitors (also known as "Dreamers"): In every NiGHTS game, NiGHTS has the help of two visitors, a girl and a boy, who are struggling in their lifes, the visitors dualize (fuse) with NiGHTS to become a single being, this way NiGHTS can use their dream energy to become more powerful, in the first game, the Visitors are Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, in the second, they are William "Will" Taylor and Helen Cartwright. Other medias NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings A mini NiGHTS storybook called NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings was released exclusivly in Japan in 1996, the story tells a small adventure with NiGHTS and Elliot trying to stop the nightmarens from taking over Nightopia. NiGHTS Archie Comics In 1998 Archie Comics released a total of six NiGHTS comics, while the first three did pretty well, the last three didn't, causing the Archies to be discontinued. Cameos and References in games and other medias Full list of NiGHTS' appearances, cameos and references Even with only two games, the NiGHTS series is referred in a lot of SEGA games, the most notable cameos being in many Sonic games, NiGHTS was also referred in other types of media, such as in the Nickelodeon's Animated TV series, Danny Phantom. Reception Since its release, NiGHTS into Dreams has appeared on several best-game-of-all-time lists. In a January 2000 poll by Computer and Video Games, readers placed the game 15th on their "100 Greatest Games" list, directly behind Super Mario 64. IGN ranked the game as the 94th best game of all time in their "Top 100 Games" list in 2007, and in 2008, Levi Buchanan ranked it fourth in his list of the top 10 Sega Saturn games. Next Generation ranked the game 25th in its list of the "100 Greatest Games of All Time" in their September 1996 issue (i.e. one month before they actually reviewed the game, and roughly two months before it saw release outside Japan). 1UP ranked the game third in its "Top Ten Cult Classics" list. In 2014, GamesRadar listed Nights into Dreams as the best Sega Saturn game of all time, stating that the game "tapped into a new kind of platform gameplay for its era". Cult Following Even though the series has just a few games, NiGHTS has one of the largest cult following out of all the SEGA franchises, and even SEGA, Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka and Naoto Oshima acknowledge that, Lynne Triplett, a famous artist and NiGHTS fan among the NiGHTS community was responsable for creating NiGHTSintodreams.com, a NiGHTS fan site dedicated to NiGHTS' news, facts, fanarts, fan comics and more, she also met and interviewed the serie's creators and developers. In 2010, the NiGHTS community started a campaign to make NiGHTS a playable character in Sonic and SEGA All-Star Racing (a racing game featuring a lot of SEGA characters such as Sonic, AiAi, Virtua Fighter characters and more) once it was revealed he wouldn't be playable character in the game, the campaign was strong enough to reach SUMO Digital Studios and Steve Lycett answered the campaign saying they would be considering to make NiGHTS a DLC, unfortunatly though, NiGHTS didn't make in the game as a DLC, however due to the campain, both NiGHTS and Reala became playable characters in the sequel, Sonic and All-Star Racing Transformed in 2012. In 2011, to celebrate the game's 15th anniversary, OverClocked ReMix (OC Remix), a community which makes video game music with composers from all over the world, made a fan album for NiGHTS into dreams, called NiGHTS Lucid Dreaming http://lucid.ocremix.org/ and Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka themselves were gifted with a copy of the discs. Trivia References External links ;Official ;Commercial ;Fan made Category:Games Category:Nights into Dreams Wiki Category:Community